Aron and Cory Shea, of Shea Property Services and Vermont Signature Homes, pitched the Waitsfield Select Board this week on a plan to build 20 dwelling units on town-owned land that abuts the town gravel pit.
The select board will hold a site view in the coming weeks to review the land and the proposal. Aron Shea, at the board’s August 27 meeting, outlined the proposal. He and his brother are working to develop housing in the town, having purchased the former Methodist Church several years ago, the former Sage Restaurant building (where they operate Valley Meade) and portions of the former Spaulding farm on Route 100.
The Shea brothers recently received approval from the Waitsfield Development Review Board for a three-lot subdivision that will result in two-duplexes being built on two acres on the west side of Route 100 just north of Tremblay Road. Those four units will connect to the town’s municipal water system. (See story Page 9.)
At this week’s meeting, Aron Shea told the board that some 11 acres of the land between the town gravel pit and Route 100 came to their attention as they were working on wastewater for the duplex project.
Shea told the board that he’d attended local meetings about the need for housing and given the urgent need for workforce housing, he said one solution would be to incentivize developers.
“Give us the land and let us do something with it. That land is fairly open and doesn’t require a ton of work. Our initial thought was to put in townhome duplexes or fourplexes,” he said.
“If the town is interested, we’d plan for selling the units for 120% of AMI,” he said, referring to a current standard for affordable workforce housing that would mean offering units at $375,000.
Those units, he said, after the meeting, would be three-bedroom, 1.5-baths and about 1,500 square feet with full, unfinished basements. The goal, he said, would be to build the homes quickly – in 24 weeks best case scenario – sell them as affordable and create covenants that keep them affordable in perpetuity.
“Working with Signature Building Systems, out of Pennsylvania, on offsite construction, we can create custom homes that are at least 30% lower than the current market prices. We have the septic capacity on our property that is beyond the town land and would only need a pump station to serve those new units,” Shea said.
Adding those units to the town’s municipal wastewater system would significantly increase the usage of that system as well, he noted.
“If the legal details can be sorted out in a way that allows us to build and sell the homes affordably and that works for the town in terms of creating much-needed housing, adding to the tax rolls, and adding users to the town’s water system and sell half of the units as affordably as possible and sell the other half at 120% of AMI or $375,000. Building town houses with shared walls will make it more cost effective and our attorneys are working on language to keep the units affordable,” Shea said.
If the town can work out a way to provide the land for housing, Shea said that he and his brother anticipate $75,000 for permitting and engineering and said they could get started right away.
“Obviously we’d manage the whole thing,” he added.
At this week’s board meeting board member Chach Curtis asked Shea if they planned to purchase the property. Shea said no, but if they had to do that, it would change the cost structure with only a portion of the units being sold as affordable.
“If the land is gifted it would be much easier to do workforce housing,” Shea said.
Board chair Christine Sullivan suggested that the town would like provide an easement or lease on the land or sell it to the Sheas for a nominal fee.
Board member Brian Shupe suggested that the town schedule a site visit to review the site and discuss the project further.
